The management of the Papine Delight Franchised Restaurant chain is in the process of establishing quality- control charts for the time that its service people give to each customer. Management...

The management of the Papine Delight Franchised Restaurant chain is in the process of establishing quality- control charts for the time that its service people give to each customer. Management thinks the length of time that each customer is given should remain within certain limits to enhance service. Do you agree or disagree with this thinking, cite arguments to support your decisions.

There are arguments to be made for both sides of this debate. I will provide the arguments and you can decide which argument makes more sense to you.

On the one hand, it seems that limiting the amount of time that restaurant patrons may stay at their table would not enhance service at all. Patrons who came to the restaurant to enjoy a leisurely meal would feel that they were being rushed. They would feel that they were not valued as people. Instead, they would feel like the restaurant was trying to get them in and out as quickly as possible so as to increase profits. Therefore, this proposal would, we could argue, actually degrade customer service instead of enhancing it.

On the other hand, it is possible to say that this would enhance service. This is true if we think of the patrons who are waiting to eat, rather than those who are already eating. Imagine that a patron has made a reservation for a given time. The patron shows up to the restaurant only to find that their table is not ready because the previous patrons are sitting around talking after they are already done with their meal. This might make the previous patrons feel good about the service, but it would make the patron with the reservation very unhappy. Even patrons without reservations would be affected as there would be longer waits for tables. Thus, we could argue that setting time limits would actually work to enhance service.

We can see, then, that this proposal could enhance or degrade service, depending on how you look at it. Which argument do you find more compelling?